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Bioethicists Suggest Killing Someone With ‘No Autonomy Left’ Is Not Morally Wron

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Pandora:
We are really entering dangerous territory here, particularly with the onset of Obamacare's IPAB, where people are referred to as "units".

The crux of the matter is the article two "bioethicists" have written advocating for organ harvesting from live "donors"; how, in many cases, the rules are already being ignored, and their opinions for why human life has no more value than a weed.


--- Quote ---Two bioethicists — one from Duke University, the other from the National Institute of Health — bring up the question “What makes killing wrong?” in the latest issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. Using their definition of killing, the authors conclude if the person is “universally and irreversibly disabled” and has “no abilities to lose” then killing them to take organs for donation in order to save the lives of others should not be considered morally wrong.

...

    “[T]he dead donor rule is routinely violated in the contemporary practice of vital organ donation. Consistency with traditional medical ethics would entail that this kind of vital organ donation must cease immediately. This outcome would, however, be extremely harmful and unreasonable from an ethical point of view [because patients who could be saved will die]. Luckily, it is easily obviated by abandoning the norm against killing.”

    [...]

    “If killing were wrong just because it is causing death or the loss of life, then the same principle would apply with the same strength to pulling weeds out of a garden. If it is not immoral to weed a garden, then life as such cannot really be sacred, and killing as such cannot be morally wrong.”

BioEdge clarifies that the authors seeks to better define just what is considered killing. It adds that the authors suggest killing someone with “no autonomy left” cannot be considered “unfair” or disrespectful because it “if it does her no harm.”
--- End quote ---

So, killing someone now is "doing her no harm".

This is abortion carried to its logical conclusion.

eta:  And the writing in this piece is no great shakes either, IDP.

IronDioPriest:
I suggest that using their logic, beheading bioethicists with an axe is not morally wrong.

LadyVirginia:
If one believes that pulling a weed ( "a vegetable") is no different than pulling the oxygen on a disabled person ("a vegetable") then I guess killing a person is okay.

This is the downside to accepting the separation of faith from life's challenges/work/school/etc or believing a faith in God/religion has no relevance.  Faith in God as a society keeps us from being barbarians whether any one person chooses to believe or not in a higher being.


 But larger and larger segments of the population no longer believe religion or faith in God as an active part of their life is needed.  But without that basis they have no point of reference.  Thus one is likely to be persuaded of the merits of an argument based on a false premise (pulling a weed is killing) and in fact feel quite virtuous on pulling grandma's plug.

John Florida:

--- Quote from: IronDioPriest on January 30, 2012, 03:39:31 PM ---I suggest that using their logic, beheading bioethicists with an axe is not morally wrong.

--- End quote ---

 As long as you give their body parts to more worthy people of course.

charlesoakwood:

With the head removed it is merely lifeless tissue.

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